What is Pain ?

There are two main types
of pain. Acute pain is a normal response by the body to sickness or damage.
In most cases it is not prolonged. Chronic long term pain is frequently
a product of chronic disease an earlier injury or perhaps surgery. Such
chronic pain usually results from the way we heal.

Pain is a unique experience
for each individual and no two people experience pain in precisely the
same way. Perhaps the worst thing about pain is that it may be elusive
and is usually particular to pain sufferer. Sometimes it can be very difficult
to describe to other people in an accurate fashion. This makes finding
the source of the pain and, as a consequence, getting relief more difficult.

The word pain is
normally used to describe a multitude of physical effects however it is
best described as a sensory or emotional reaction to real or impending
damage to the body's tissue. Emotional distress can make many demands
as physical pain. Pain can be categorised into the different categories
as described here.

Acute Pain

This is instantaneous pain
that is usually the outcome of a physical trauma, or mishap, such as a
fall, a blow, a sprain, a bone fracture, inflammation and / or an infection.
It is emergency pain and it is trying to warn us that the body is being
damaged in some way. It informs us quickly and directly that there is
something wrong and that we need to react in some manner to stop the damage.
Acute pain normally dissipates as the healing occurs, but it may develop
into chronic pain after the healing is complete.

Chronic Pain

Chronic pain, unlike acute
pain that usually goes away with time and treatment, is enduring and long
term in nature. Chronic pain continues even after healing has occurred
or where the source or cause of the pain persists. The role of chronic
pain in the body is difficult to understand. It is not just an indicator
that something should be done quickly or that requires a reaction by the
pain sufferer.

Chronic pain is a pain
that simply will not go away. It is quite often difficult to explain why
the pain persists. In some cases pain is a result of the healing process.
The healing may be successful but in a such way that it continues to cause
pain. Chronic pain is ever-present and nagging, and remains despite everything
being done to ease it.

Many conditions produce
chronic pain including arthritis, rheumatic disorders, and long-term conditions
such as lupus. Sufferers will readily confirm that severe chronic pain
can be extremely distressing and debilitating.

Referred Pain

An important aspect of
pain is that it may be referred. Referred pain is experienced at
some remove from where the pain actually begins. Or put another way, the
site of the pain is not the source of the pain. An example would be osteo-arthritis
of the hip which causes pain to be felt in the knee joint.

Clearly it is vital to
discover what is the source of the pain to be able to deal with it effectively
and, of course, that means being able to identify the real origin of the
aggravation. Naturally when the source is not the same as where the pain
is being experienced this identification can become far more difficult.

This phenomenon is not
fully understood by non-experts and is a major reason for errors in the
proper and successful relief of pain by people treating themselves. Sometimes
such mistakes can have damaging and even fatal consequences. In some very
rare situations pain in the right shoulder may be a symptom of cancer
of the abdomen.

It is essential to seek
professional, and usually medical, advice for persistent pain, or pain
that appears to have no obvious cause.

Emotional Pain

For most us pain is usually
thought of as physical pain. However there is another type of pain that
is just as real. This is emotional pain. This is the pain and torment
we feel via our mind and emotions. It is the type of pain we experience
from being a sense of rejection, bereavement, problems with relationships,
or the loss of love. External causes such as becoming unemployed or financial
worries can also lead to emotional pain.

One acute form of emotional
distress is from depression. Depression is a catch-all term that covers,
anything from feeling down in the dumps to extreme mental and emotional
pain. Mental pain has a pain subset that may include nightmares, fears,
phobias, and more extreme obsessions, compulsions and addictions to food,
drink, drugs or sex, just for example. It is very important also to realise
that long-term emotional pain can lead to physical issues such as ulcers
or migraine. This psychosomatic illness is therefore a type of referred
pain and can also be quite difficult to diagnose.

It is increasingly being
accepted that the mind and body should not be treated as separate parts
but should be considered as a whole - or holistically. This is not only
the situation with the causes of pain but in the treatment of pain and
it's causes.

Many older and traditional
forms of healing, such as traditional Chinese medicine, naturopathy and
homeopathy, as well as many conventional doctors specialising in pain
control and management, recognise this link between mind and body.

The science of psycho-neuro-
immunology (PNI) explores how the mind can help the body to heal itself
and how the body can influence the mind. The power of the mind can promote
the release of chemicals within the brain which have a bearing on the
body's physical state and that these can either be positive or be negative.

Dealing with aspects of
a person's physical state, for example diet and exercise, can help to
successfully treat symptoms of emotional pain.